Those Great African Heavyweights

Gerrie Coetzee

  • Kallie Knoetze

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Pierre Coetzer

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Johnny DuPlooy

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Corrie Sanders

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Francois Botha

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (please elaborate)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

Sean

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Following Peter's loss to Vitali, I thought it would be appropriate to look at some real African Warriors.
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Gerrie Coetzee is one of my favorites, he had really fast hands, was a very good counterpuncher, and one of the top Heavyweights of his day. It's really too bad a bout with Holmes never materialized, as I really think Coetzee could have won that fight. Here are some clips of Gerrie in action:

1st round KO over Leon Spinks
part one of his rediculous loss to Renaldo Snipes
*Note you can find the rest of the fight at the end of each part.
part one of his WBA title victory over Michael Dokes
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Kallie Knoetze, who was Coetzee's hated rival, had some heavy hands. He was not very fast, but possessed extreme power. He was a cop who had his US visa revoked because he had shot a black in the line of duty at an earlier time. As such, he only fought in the US once. He got beat by John Tate, but Knoetze said he couldn't train for the fight, which was very apparent. He said if his mind would have been right, there was no fighter in the world who could have beat him that night. Here is his KO win over Denton Ruddock:

KO of Ruddock NOTE: check the right hand that lands at 2:58. That is the most powerful shot I've ever seen, that didn't knock down an opponent.
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Pierre Coetzer is best known for losing in three very gutsy performances to Bowe, Bruno and Foreman. He was a very tough, strong Afrikaaner who put together some good wins. Against Bowe, he was hit low NINE TIMES (Bowe got his payback for this against Golota). To show how tough this guy was, watch the final round versus Bowe. He just never stopped coming forward!

vs Bowe

Also, check out this very exciting fight between he and DuPlooy!

vs DuPlooyNote: DuPlooy has the longer hair.
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Speaking of Johhny DuPlooy, he is another very underrated Heavyweight out of South Africa. He didn't possess the best chin, but he packed a good punch. He KO'd Mike Weaver in two rounds. Note many videos, heres one of him fighting Bennie Knoetze, Kallie's brother.

vs Bennie Knoetze
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Corrie Sanders we are probably all familiar with. Of course he beat Wlad and earned a piece of Heavyweight history. In the rematch, Sanders was dominated by Vitali for 8 rounds, as was Samuel Peter. Unlike Peter, however, Sanders carried on the tradition of the gutsy South Africans, by continuing to fight, right up until the ref stepped in to save him. That's something Samuel Peter refused to do. Here are some early clips of Corrie:

vs Matthew Brooks
vs Jorge Valdes
vs Michael Sprott
vs Al Cole
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And Finally, Frans Botha. To me Frans is the South African Golota. His chin wasn't great, but he's had some really bad luck. He didn't look too bad in his losin effort to Klitschko. He beat Shannon Briggs and Clifford Etienne pretty convincingly, but both fights ended as draws! Heres the Briggs fight:

part 1 of Botha-Briggs

What did all the fighters have in common (besides the mustache)? They all had vast amounts of courage, and were Heavyweights that we should be proud of. They faced discrimination (I'm not sure but I think only one of the ranking organizations would rate them, the others wouldn't put them in because they were South African) and yet still managed to put together some pretty good careers. And they are the best Heavyweights Africa has ever produced.
 

Sean

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Note, if you vote for Coetzee, please vote other. I messed up the poll a little
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White Shogun

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Sean, this is a great thread with some great clips. It may not be getting the attention it deserves because of the title. I wasn't going to read it but on second glance I thought it might be a sarcastic thread about fighters like Sam Peter. Much to my surprise (and glee) it was a thread about WHITE Africans!

Good job compiling all this info into one place. Thanks for posting.
 

Sean

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White Shogun said:
Sean, this is a great thread with some great clips. It may not be getting the attention it deserves because of the title. I wasn't going to read it but on second glance I thought it might be a sarcastic thread about fighters like Sam Peter. Much to my surprise (and glee) it was a thread about WHITE Africans!

Good job compiling all this info into one place. Thanks for posting.

Thank you WS. I thought the title would be catchy in a sarcastic sort of way
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I really liked these South African Heavyweights. They are really overlooked, but it was a very bright spot during a pretty bad era for white fighters. These guys put up with a lot because of where they were from. I'm interested in seeing who you guys think were the best of this group. I havent voted yet, but I would say Coetzee based on accomplishments. If it was based on potential I would probably say Knoetze or Sanders. One thing for sure, these guys were tough, and had a lot of heart at a time when the heart of white fighters was always questioned by the boxing media.
 

Blue Devils

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I voted other for Coetzee. Knocking out Spinks in 1 round after he recently beat Ali two fights before is an impressive feat. Plus becoming the first Caucasian champ in 23 years. Corrie Sanders is a very underrated fighter who was ducked by most in the 90s. Botha was probably my favorite. Shame he got knocked out by Tyson after being ahead.

For a non heavyweight Brian Mitchell was probably the best South African boxer. Junior lightweight record 12 title defenses. Won the title after beating Alfredo Layne who just beat the great Wilfredo Gomez. Due to South Africa's apartheid policy during those times, Mitchell became a true 'road warrior', defending his title almost exclusively abroad. Finished his career with a 45-1-3 record.
 

Jimmy Chitwood

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i don't know enough about boxing to cast an informed vote, so i will abstain. however, this is an awesome thread! thanks for some entertaining african ass-kickers, Sean.
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Sean

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Jimmy Chitwood said:
i don't know enough about boxing to cast an informed vote, so i will abstain. however, this is an awesome thread! thanks for some entertaining african ass-kickers, Sean.
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Thanks Jimmy.

shawn1262231 said:
For a non heavyweight Brian Mitchell was probably the best South African boxer. Junior lightweight record 12 title defenses. Won the title after beating Alfredo Layne who just beat the great Wilfredo Gomez. Due to South Africa's apartheid policy during those times, Mitchell became a true 'road warrior', defending his title almost exclusively abroad. Finished his career with a 45-1-3 record.

Mitchell was very skilled. Check out the Toweel brothers (I think there were 4 or 5 of them) from South Africa. Also, Pierre Fourie was a pretty good light heavyweight who went the distance with Bob Foster twice, at a time when Foster was knocking out most of his challengers.
 

Westside

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Great post Sean. I selected Coetzee as the greatest African fighter. I remember that fight with Leon Sprinks. I had hoped he would fight Holmes and beat him, at the same time shut up the blacks and white self loathers.

His crowning achievement was his great victory over Michael Dokes who was in his prime for a Heavyweight title. Coetzee was one White fighter who gave us hope during boxing dark years from the 1970's to 1990's by kicking ass. The Dokes fight is also on Youtube and worth viewing.
 

Sean

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Westside said:
Great post Sean. I selected Coetzee as the greatest African fighter. I remember that fight with Leon Sprinks. I had hoped he would fight Holmes and beat him, at the same time shut up the blacks and white self loathers.

His crowning achievement was his great victory over Michael Dokes who was in his prime for a Heavyweight title. Coetzee was one White fighter who gave us hope during boxing dark years from the 1970's to 1990's by kicking ass. The Dokes fight is also on Youtube and worth viewing.

Yes, I have a link for part one of the Dokes fight above, you can navigate to the rest of the parts (there are six) through youtube's website. In part six, Larry Merchant talks to Gerrie about fighting Larry Holmes, Larry says "You're saying that your not very fond of Larry Holmes" to which Gerrie just shakes his head and says somewhat menicingly "No".

When Coetzee trained, he was really unbeatable. The problem with Gerrie usually centered around his stamina. When he took it serious, look out. That's why I honestly believe Gerrie could have, and probably would have, beaten Larry Holmes. This win over Dokes was in 1983. Remember, 83 was the year Holmes struggled to beat Tim Witherspoon. If you look at the guys Holmes was fighting around this time, none of them were near Coetzee. Of course 2 years later Holmes would lose twice to Spinks. Spinks weighed 175 only three moths prior to his first fight with Holmes. I think Gerrie was better than Spinks, and I think he could have beaten Holmes.
 

Blue Devils

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Are there any good South African contenders/prospects today? Over the years South Africa and Australia have produced some rugged and extremely tough white fighters. I can't think of any SA fighters today apart from a few black bantamweights and junior featherweights.
 

Sean

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shawn1262231 said:
Are there any good South African contenders/prospects today? Over the years South Africa and Australia have produced some rugged and extremely tough white fighters. I can't think of any SA fighters today apart from a few black bantamweights and junior featherweights.

Unfortunately there are not many. At Heavyweight, they have Jake Els, and Pietr Cronje. Both have losses (both were KO'd by Osborne Mchimana who also beat aging and out of shape Corrie Sanders) but could do okay on the African scene given time. They had a Heavyweight in in the mid 90's named Mike Bernardo who definately fit the mold of the guys above, but he switched to K1, where he beat guys like Andy Hug, Peter Aerts, Maurice Smith, Cro Cop, Gary Goodridge, and Butterbean.

As for their best current fighters. They have two guys I could find. Chris van Heerden is a 10-0 welterweight, and the current African Boxing Union WW champ. They also have Daniel Bruwer, who I think we will be hearing a lot more of in the future. He a Light Heavyweight, 20-1 with 17 KO's. He's the current South African LH champ.
 

white is right

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It's been a down time for South African heavyweights. Botha, Sanders and to a lesser extent Duplooy were the high water mark for depth. If you want sarcasm, why isn't the Nevada states number one contender,turned prostitute rapist turned salad t**ser on this list?(Ike Ibeabuchi)...
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Sean

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P-NutLane said:
Nice man. I had not heard of any of these classic tough guys. Thanks Sean
Thank you, I hope you enjoyed the videos. If anybody can find anymore videos of these fighters, feel free to post them.
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